Worminghall Parish Council
Minutes of First Meeting
Held on Thursday May 11th, 2017
Present: Cllrs: Skates, (Chairman), Showell (Vice Chair) Bramley, Hopcroft, Black Dst Cllr Rand 11 members of the public.
2/ The Chair and Vice Chair stepped down.
3/ Nominations were requested for Chair – Cllr Hopcroft Nominated Cllr Skates and Cllr Bramley seconded the proposal. Cllr Skates signed the Declaration of Acceptance of Office.
4/ Nominations were requested for Vice Chair, Cllr Skates nominated Cllr Showell and that was seconded by Cllr Bramley.
5// Apologies: None
6/ Declaration of Interests: None
7/ Minutes from meeting April 13th 2017: were agreed and signed by the Chairman as a true record.
8/ Neighbourhood Plan: Cllr Bramley gave the report - Since the last meeting we have entered into correspondence with Rectory Homes and last weekend formally invited them to meet the steering group at the village hall one Saturday in late May. So far we have had no reply. The purpose will be for Rectory to elaborate more about their plans for the site behind the Avenue, to give us an idea of their anticipated timescales and to answer any questions we have in response to what they tell us. We are doing this because we have reached the end of the current phase of actively consulting residents.
We are doing this even-handedly, so we will be offering the same opportunity to the other landowners or developers who included a green space for play area in their plans. Each group will have a one hour slot to talk to us. Notes will be taken and will be made public through the new Parish Council website.
We are making an effort to keep villagers informed, and copies of the correspondence with Rectory Homes to date have been posted round the village. We are also collecting the responses to the leaflet drop which Rectory Homes did last month. It is not too late to get in touch with us - the dedicated email account is . We are not circulating the letters and email we get because we don’t have permission to do so, but of course we are taking everyone’s views into account. Villagers expressing their own concerns have been in contact with us, and we are trying to keep everyone up to date.
The steering group also met last night with our consultant to discuss next steps in more detail. We have working drafts of most of the documents we need to submit to the Parish Council and hope to be in a position to do this at a PC meeting, in late July.
9/ Village Amenities: Charmian Dunford reported that they had a Fete Committee for this year and funds from that could be given to the Village Hall, Councillors considered the projected budget prepared by the Clerk which showed a reasonable working capital and agreed to give £750 to the Village Hall for re-pointing the North Wall and to tarmac the verge entrance which was ruined by gigaclear installing their cables.
New website, training has been given to the Clerk, Cllr Black and John Skates.
Clerk to attend drop in session on claiming the grant for the Clerk.
10/ Ditches & hedges: Cllr Hopcroft volunteered to cut back foliage on the verge in Oakley Road which is obscuring the flower box under the Worminghall village sign. He also agreed to turn the twisted sign on the Menmarsh Road. Clerk will write to Mr Baxter to ask him to trim the hedge back which is covering the Give Way sign on Menmarsh Road.
Clerk reported potholes in the crossroads on http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/services/transport-and-roads/report-a-problem/report-a-pothole Reference No: 40040156
She had reported the ‘Give Way’ sign blown over in storm Doris reference: 40040157. Dst Cllr Rand suggested she write to David Cairney and our newly elected County Councillor Clive Hariss.
11/ Local Area Forum: June 15th, Cllrs Skates and Black to attend. It was suggested that they ask other Parishes there about whether the SWARCO Traffic Ltd maintenance agreement was worth taking again @ £252.00 for the MVAS.
12/ Planning: 17/00490/APP Elizabeth House, Wornal Pk, Erection of upper storey to accommodate 2 flats. Objection due to suitability of location and traffic. Still pending.
13/ Planning Up-date: 42a The Avenue to complete works to upstairs window. A progress report has been requested from home owner.
14/Finance & Expenditure:
Accounts signed by the Chairwoman. The Annual Statement read and signed and comments from auditor on Annual Return for 2016 noted and actioned.
The Clerk published the dates for the public to exercise their rights to view the accounts. All available on the new website: http://www.worminghall-pc.co.uk/
Grant funding repaid to Groundworks £28.56
Payment for website domain name: £8.98 +
Village Hall Committee £750.00
All payments agreed by the Council. All cheques signed by two Councillors and counterfoils initialed to comply with Financial Regulations adopted 2016.
Risk assessments confirmed and up-dated to comply with Financial Regulations.
15/Correspondence: Bucks Vision have dates to speak about the partially sighted and what they can do to make their lives more manageable.
Oakley Parish Council purchased more land to extend their burial ground, we have been assured that there is ample space in St Peter & St Paul’s Church currently.
River Thame clean up dates on notice board. The date for this Saturday has been postponed til June 17th. Contact: Natalie Breden MSc
Project Officer, River Thame Conservation Trust
E: M: 07413936048
16/Any Other Business: A resident thought that there was not a long enough gap between the ‘give way’ & 30mph signs and the houses on Menmarsh Road. This is a highways issue. Report any problems at this address.
http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/services/transport-and-roads/report-a-problem/report-a-pothole
17/ Date of next meeting: June 29th 8pm in the Village Hall then on July 27th at 8pm in the Village Hall.
18/Meeting closed 8.40pm.
Acronyms:
MVAS Mobile Vehicle Activated Sign
AVDC Aylesbury Vale District Council
SODC South Oxford District Council